Bill (Billy Warlock) recognizes that he is different from his family and other upper class people in town. He is terrified of everything and everyone and is having awful hallucinations and nightmares about things he believes are going to happen. When things start to get really weird, Billy returns home to find that his family his having a huge party and there is nothing normal about it.
Billy Whitney is part of a wealthy family in Beverly Hills, captain of the debate team and part of the basketball team in his high school. Despite his high standings, Billy is different from everyone else. He doesn’t quite fit in with the rich kids or with his own family, leading him to believe he was adopted. These hallucinations take Billy to a psychiatrist who spends their sessions trying to help him become a decent member of society.
As it turns out, Billy isn’t the only person who is paranoid about the upper class in his town. With the help of a friend, Billy finds out that his sister and parents are involved in an incestuous relationship and that even stranger things have been happening when he isn’t around. In fact, strange things happen when he is around but he seems to have almost no reaction to them. Gradually, everyone who attempts to help Billy dies in violent ways and despite all of the warnings and obvious set-ups, Billy pushes on to find out the truth about society.
The rich feed off the lower classes, literally, in what they call “The Shunting.” During The Shunting, the rich suck the life out of the victim, absorbing them into their body. This melts their bodies together into a giant pile of what looks like melted pink plastic. This is how the wealthy stay alive and powerful.
Society is a fun and cheesy 80’s horror film taking a look at the evil underbelly of upper class society. It reminds me of Disturbing Behavior meets Slither. The makeup and special effects are disgusting. The party scene is like a giant taffy pull with limbs covered in KY Jelly.
The presence of Billy Warlock in the film should be significant. To the fans of the genre, his last name carries quite a bit of weight being that his father, Dick Warlock, played the boogeyman himself, Michael Myers. Billy isn’t the greatest actor in the world but his impressive mullet and good looks don’t hurt him in the role.
It is easy to see how Society never became the main stream horror film that several others did. I honestly don’t think a lot of people could stomach it. It is pretty gross and probably too strange for anyone other than a horror fan to watch. With that said, I loved every single second of it.
Overall, Society is worth every penny for a horror fan. It is weird, disgusting, funny and bloody, all things that make horror movies fun.
Society is now available on Blu-ray and DVD from Arrow Video.
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Ann Hale is the horror editor for Pop-Break.com and a senior contributing writer, reviewing horror movies and television shows. She is also the American Correspondent for Lovehorror.co.uk and writer for Geekandstuff.com. Ann attended East Carolina University, majoring in English Literature. She is a collector of Halloween (the film) memorabilia and is a self-admitted opinionated horror nerd. You can follow her, her collection and her cat, Edward Kittyhands on Twitter and Instagram @Scarletjupiter
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